@ Errant:
I agree. Anyone else think there should be a lot more of the characters we started with? I sure hope that we’ll get that once the jailbreak is over with. (Honestly, I thought the jailbreak would take a maximum of one whole chapter. I like the story, but this is a lot of time without the cover character doing anything.)

Oddly, I don’t miss most of the main cast all that much. I know we’re supposed to like Ilias, but he seems a tad off(and a bit of a jerk). Lilith is a bit bland herself, and most of the other primary characters that didn’t die outright are too skimpily covered or kind of jerky.

Sandril is actually kind of interesting and fairly nice, despite being cast as a kind of quasi-villain/rival to Ilias, the supposed hero.

Viviana stole the show, but she’s also the most compelling character by far. The “big bad” is decent, but the rest of the ensamble cast requires a bit of tag checking to see who is what–they’re kind of forgetable.

The story itself is interesting, but most of the ensemble feels flat. Ars was great, but snuffed rather swiftly. Everyone else is kind of generic.

The thing that makes me saddest about this trend is that I want Lillith to have enough screen time to be developed as more than a “good girl” and “prodigy with magic”. I want to like her and still really don’t understand why she was railroaded when she’s got so little backstory.

Viviana is ok, I guess, but I don’t connect with her personally… so she’s just sort of this person who happens to be doing things right now. She clearly has goals and backstory, but I don’t have a good feeling for who she is. I find her constant extreme aptitude at her job kind of off-putting. I find it more interesting when more things go wrong and the hero is forced to learn and grow from them.

If you check tags, so far we have six key players that have been on screen more than the rest. They are:
• Ilias: 90 times
• Viviana: 81 times
• Allisa: 54 times
• Lilith: 48 times
• Ryn: 36 times
• Sandril: 28 times

Then you have the second tier:
• Faye: 16 times
• Gradus: 15 times
• Korahan: 12 times
• Ars: 11 times

Everyone else has appeared fewer than ten times.

All the second tier and the rest are obviously secondary support characters. The core six just happens to split into three boys and three girls. Coincidence? I doubt it.

I definitely like the Viviana focus, but that might just be *because* she’s been focused on (i.e. she has the most development). Most of the rest don’t seem as dimensional. I would like to see them have more of a stake in the story

@ Lucid:
The thing that makes me saddest about this trend is that I want Lillith to have enough screen time to be developed as more than a “good girl” and “prodigy with magic”. I want to like her and still really don’t understand why she was railroaded when she’s got so little backstory.
Viviana is ok, I guess, but I don’t connect with her personally… so she’s just sort of this person who happens to be doing things right now. She clearly has goals and backstory, but I don’t have a good feeling for who she is. I find her constant extreme aptitude at her job kind of off-putting. I find it more interesting when more things go wrong and the hero is forced to learn and grow from them.

It would be rather amiss if Viviana was *not* showing extreme aptitude. She’s the leader of a rebellion force that does much of the work first-hand, and has been doing so for over a decade, since she was a young child.

If someone spent ~1/2 their life training and battling, with others relying on them constantly, they would either become highly skilled or die. Viviana’s not perfect–her very first appearance was her stabbing herself to create a distraction so she could escape her botched burglary attempt. Her escape sequence in the prequel was very inept as well.

So we’ve been set up with someone who’s been thrust into the hardest of hard lives, and thrived under the intensity of it, and, consequently of having a “stolen childhood”, constantly acts rather childish. She never “grew up” in the sense most people did, and her best survival factor has been her mild immaturity–she’s a rebellious child who’s still rebelling.

I believe we’re going to see more character development of her soon, the tower being the first inkling of it. I realize it may not be “easy to connect” with, but at least it makes sense.

As for Lillith, she’s gotten just enough to serve her purpose. Rather than being *told* she’s a good girl, we’re shown it. So, it’s been established that she’s someone worth saving. Beyond that, her only role thus far has been as a Macguffin .

One interesting thing I’d also like to note, somewhere around here it’s noted that this was originally a D&D computer game’s campaign design. If I had to guess, I’m under the impression Viviana is the player, and the bland cast represents the NPCs–just enough screen time to explain what their part in the story is, whilst the player is busy experiencing the campaign itself.

@ Lucid:
I’d also posit that Vivian being the player is part of why she shows “extreme aptitude”. If you beat challenge X, the game/story continues. If you fail, gameover, go back and reload your last save point.

I’m sorry, Lilith as of the chapter of letter to Jael Bara, you are no longer the lead female Viviana is. Heck, Viviana’s even a titular character unlike Lilith. Also with Ryn getting subsequently less and less screen time, I all of the sudden have a feeling he’s going to be a red shirt during the whole prison fight.